1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an apparatus for storing, transporting and dispensing hardware to workers at workstations on an assembly line. More particularly, this invention relates to a transportable rotatable dispensing apparatus. Wherein, the apparatus can be loaded with supplies, hardware or parts, then, transported to a multiplicity of workstations for workers to use in an assembly of a product.
2. Description of the Prior Art
There are a wide variety of dispensing devices that store various items ranging from paint to fishing hooks. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,582,225, discloses a dental porcelain powder dispenser which may house numerous different shades of porcelain powder where a quantity of a desired shade may be readily and quickly dispensed in small quantities while remaining free of contamination. Moreover, U.S. Pat. No. 4,809,883, discloses a sand dispensing assembly wherein, two different sands are held in two bins in a top section, and a middle section has two sets of dispensing tubes, and a bottom section has discharge funnels. The main application of the invention is to dispense sand into a foundry mold riser. Furthermore, U.S. Pat. No. 3,735,902, discloses a chemical analysis dispenser for measuring out quantities of particular materials in precise and minute amounts, and means to vary the amounts. Finally, U.S. Pat. No. 4,681,741, discloses a reagent dispensing assembly for use in an automated specimen analysis system. Specifically, the invention reduces operator involvement by using a computer-type processor which controls the system so that the various operations are carried out in appropriate sequence and the results of the analysis are recorded with specific reference to the sample analyzed.
Although, these identified dispensing devices work well in a fixed stationary position, none of them are designed to be transported to successive work stations, or move along an assembly line.
Accordingly, in today's international market place, corporations often can not compete against other companies that can assemble products for less cost. Specifically, an area that can cut the costs of assemble involves the inefficiency in resupplying parts, articles and hardware used by the assembly worker to assemble the product. Often, one problem is that workers are required to leave their workstations to obtain the needed hardware to assemble the product; thus shutting down all or part of the assembly line for that time period. It is easy to understand how this situation would increase the cost of producing products.
There are several known solutions to minimize the assembly line shut down time. For example, one such way involves the addition of a supply person. The supply person's sole task is to keep the assembly workers supplied with parts and hardware. Often, though, the supplier will run from station to station with a supply cart and unload supplies at each successive work station. Although this system is an improvement over the prior method, the supply person is still an additional cost to the assembly operation and the amount of unnecessary running around should be minimized.
Therefore, a need exists for an apparatus that can relieve a supply person of the need to walk the supply cart to each assembly worker.
Accordingly, it is the primary object of the invention to provide an apparatus that is easily transported to assembly workers located at workstations without having a worker constantly accompanying the apparatus.
It is another object of the invention to provide an apparatus that can be loaded with, dispense, keep segregated and dispense a wide range of hardware configurations to be used in an assembly process.
It is still another object of the invention to provide an apparatus that is easily manipulated by assembly workers so that a stored item can be easily located among the other stored items, and that the selected item is easily dispensed to the worker.
Therefore, the present invention provides a solution to the described problems and other problems and also offers other advantages over the prior art, and solves other problems associated therewith.